ALLIES FULLY PREPARED

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 29, 2 February 1917, Page 7

ALLIES FULLY PREPARED

ARMIES TAKING STOCK OF

EACH OTHER

GIGANTIC CLASH OF ARMS

PENDING

•" WE HAVE EVERYTHING WE

NEED.'\

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received February 2, 9 a.m.)

LONDON, Ist February

Activity on the British and French; front is increasing Pending a gigantic clash of arms the mighty armies are ■taking each others' measure.

French critics, who fully expect the 1917 campaign ;to end the war, interpret, the German attacks on the 30th January, as not only feeleTS, by which the German Staff is seeking to discover the well k&pit secrets of the Allies' plans, but a prelude to a German offensive. ■

The British and French Staffs are fully: prepared to cope with any . Germa-n effort

General Rawlinson, 'in discussing a possible German offensive, said:, "We have everything we need. If the Germans care to lose a few hundred thousand men to no purpose, -"we have no objection

Major Decrvrieux, writing in The Matin, points out that the mobility, of the large British and French heavy arillery reserves is'assured by the railways and motor traction, and will enable a crushing surprise offensive to be directed against the enemy, while they are engaged in anothei sector The Allies, not content to be on the defensive, will thus absorb the • enemy's effort and exhaust, his effectives.